Not Breathing

“Here,” she gestured around. “The desert? Because I don’t know how I got here so I don’t know how to get out.”

“That part is me,” Alex shifted from one foot to the other, the sand hot on his bare soles.

“Oh. Okay,” Skye nodded and looked around then looked down at herself. “I’m in my pyjamas. Am I asleep?” She looked up at Alex.

“I would say you’re in a meditative state, that’s usually when this works best,” he answered easily.

“You’ve done this before?” she looked surprised.

“Many times,” he assured with a smile. “So were you meditating?”

“I was but …” she looked down and sighed. “I sort of thought, there was a reason you could contact me?”

“Sure,” Alex nodded. “Some people can hear me, so to speak. I’d say you were the closest.”

“The closest?” Skye’s head jerked up and she glared. “I drove for days. You were calling me! Do you deny it?” she demanded.

“Woah,” Alex pulled his hands from his pockets, held them up before him in a stop gesture. “I’m not denying anything.”

“We had a connection,” Skye said and her shoulders slumped. “Didn’t we? Didn’t you … touch me and tell me to feel you?”

“I did, I’m sorry,” Alex dropped his eyes from hers and shoved a hand through his hair in frustration. “That’s just … it’s easier to make a connection that way,” he explained.

“Right, easier,” Skye muttered and looked away. “Well,” she took a deep breath and gave him an annoyed look. “I’m here, what do you need me to do?”

“Right now I’m the unwilling guest on an island in the bay.”

“There’s no island in the bay,” she shook her head in confusion.

“Yeah well, Joel and I would say otherwise,” Alex grimaced. “Anyway, we would love to leave but we need a little assistance.”

“I can’t do that!”Skye took a step back.

“No, not like that. We need tools.”

“I still don’t see how I can help,” Skye muttered.

“You can pass me the tools here,” Alex rushed to explain. “That’s what the touching was about, establishing that we could make contact. So now, if you have an item when we meet like this, you should be able to pass it to me.”

“Why are …” she shook her head and frowned. “How do I know you’re the good guy Alex? Why are you a guest, as you put it?”

“You have a computer right?” she nodded. “I’ll tell you who we are and who we work for. You can look it all up, okay?”

Alex held his breath while he waited for her to agree, by the look on her face he wasn’t sure she actually would.